Motion opponency examined throughout visual cortex with multivariate pattern analysis of fMRI data

This study explores how the human brain solves the challenge of flicker noise in motion processing. Despite providing no useful directional motion information, flicker is common in the visual environment and exhibits omnidirectional motion energy which is processed by low-level motion detectors. Models of motion processing propose a mechanism called motion opponency that reduces flicker processing. Motion opponency involves the pooling of local motion signals to calculate an overall motion direction. A neural correlate of motion opponency has been observed in human area MT+/V5, whereby stimuli with perfectly balanced motion energy constructed from dots moving in counter-phase elicit a weaker response than nonbalanced (in-phase) motion stimuli. Building on this previous work, we used multivariate pattern analysis to examine whether the activation patterns elicited by motion opponent stimuli resemble that elicited by flicker noise across the human visual cortex. Robust multivariate signatures of opponency were observed in V5 and in V3A. Our results support the notion that V5 is centrally involved in motion opponency and in the reduction of flicker. Furthermore, these results demonstrate the utility of multivariate analysis methods in revealing the role of additional visual areas, such as V3A, in opponency and in motion processing more generally.